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Well, okay, but the degredation would be slower, at least, if the heirs of the line 'accepted the gift' the way Aragorn did. If moral failures speed it up, it stands to reason moral successes slow it down. Like, the next generation loses only 1 year if they lay down their lives and accept the gift, but they lose 10 if they hang on to the end.

In the Third Age, the loss of lifespan among the kings was mostly between 2 to 4 years per generation (both in Arnor and Gondor). Sometimes less, sometimes a bit more. These were definitely Faithful as well, so IMO using this as a guideline for the Fourth Age is also a good estimate.
At least it is based on numerical information provided by Tolkien.

Cheers
Tolwen

That makes sense. Figure 2 years for great faithfulness like Aragorn's, 3 for average, 4 for people that screw up a little. Still, at the degeneration rate of 2 to 4 years per generation, it'll be a solid few thousand years before their lifespan finishes degenerating to 'no better then a real life human.'

I'm resurrecting this long dead thread because this has cropped up in my game recently. A Woodman PC had a desire to approach an Elf of Mirkwood in the hopes of starting a relationship with the idea to one day court her. I had already prepared my not-so-gentle shut-down speech, but when he rolls an Extraordinary success with a Gandalf on his Courtesy roll, then I guess its meant to be.

There's still a lot to be done before the relationship reaches the marriage and children and such phase; but, I have been putting some thought into how to handle it.

Here are my thoughts so far.

1. If they do make it to marriage, then it will only be because she has willingly given up her immortality to be with him.
2. Any children would, therefore, be mortal. But, to reflect their special heritage, they could choose between the two Cultural Blessings of their parents (Folk of the Dusk to showcase their Elven heritage or Woodcrafty to showcase their Woodmen heritage).
3. I've also toyed with the idea of making them seem ageless or more Fair in their old age, without actually extending their longevity.

Thoughts?

Agnot wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 04, 2018 10:28 pm

Here are my thoughts so far.

1. If they do make it to marriage, then it will only be because she has willingly given up her immortality to be with him.
2. Any children would, therefore, be mortal. But, to reflect their special heritage, they could choose between the two Cultural Blessings of their parents (Folk of the Dusk to showcase their Elven heritage or Woodcrafty to showcase their Woodmen heritage).
3. I've also toyed with the idea of making them seem ageless or more Fair in their old age, without actually extending their longevity.

Thoughts?

I knew that some LM would have to face this issue eventually; I'm a little surprised that it took this long, unless this has happened in other games but has gone unmentioned here.

1. I'm not sure how the Wood-elf maiden would revoke her immortality or that it makes sense to require it. However, it could be heart-breakingly poignant to see her having to watch her husband, children and maybe grandchildren wither and die as she lives on. It might be enough to cause her to weary of life and either give up her mortal body or take ship into the West.

2. Mortal children might be the way to go as we don't seem to have any instances of Half-elves among the people of Dol Amroth with the Choice of the Peredhil. Providing a choice of Cultural Blessings is an interesting idea.

3. If you allow new Half-elves the Choice of the Peredhil then allowing them to seem ageless until they make their choice makes sense. If, however, they are mortal then I would use Aragorn's rate of aging as a measure, but perhaps allow them twice or more his span of years (especially if the mortal parent is a Dúnadan of the North--though that's not the case in this particular instance).

Remember that this will be THE SCANDAL!!!! She will probably be exiled from the court of Thranduil. She is no Idril Celebrindal (and I am not sure most elves would consider Idril a heroine at all, more like a zoophilic elf).

Elmoth wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 06, 2018 6:46 am

Remember that this will be THE SCANDAL!!!! She will probably be exiled from the court of Thranduil. She is no Idril Celebrindal (and I am not sure most elves would consider Idril a heroine at all, more like a zoophilic elf).

I agree with you on this. The player has already set this in motion by making her beliefs more akin to the Wayward Elves. He also established her father as someone who has been in Thranduil's service for many years and it thoroughly loyal to him. It should all go over like a ton of bricks. Which will make for great fun.

I'm not sure any old Elf has the option to simply give up immortality to be with a mortal. That's a special gift/choice given to just a select few.

Only Eru can grant this gift to elves.

Soooo. Why are people so sure that the union of elves and men is so restricted? Its certainly rare in the text - there are three mentioned, but there is no textual certainty about it not happening more.

I'd certainly assume it is a very rare occasion - but there is nothing that excludes Silvian or Avari from hooking up with men and women.

So I am not allowing it for player characters but I am using this frame to create a mysterious long-lived NPC.